Mirai Nikki: Legend of Akasha
by Salaeren
Summary: [Spoilers!] After all was said and done, the Third World became a shining beacon that all but eliminated the shadows cast by Deus's Survival Game. However, the story does not end here. The truth behind Deus and his Survival Game awaits, and the defiance exhibited by Yukiteru as he bursts into the Third World will make him a legend. But darkness lingers, and an ancient evil stirs...
1. Service Unavailable

Eternity in darkness, that was his punishment.

For his actions.

For his mistakes.

For everything left unsaid.

Somehow breaking free of his stupor, Amano Yukiteru forced his eyes open and greeted the darkness once again.

He's done it so many times that he lost count. Nothing ever changed.

The second Murmur, his mystical servant bound to this timeline, continued to read her manga. He continued to float aimlessly, more silent than the universe. The stars all around them continued to fill the void with their feeble light, but none could match the light of his everlasting Future Diary.

The cell phone, a powerful yet fragile device imbued with the power of a god, was just as stagnant as he. For ten thousand years, the final message had not changed.

For one hundred centuries, the screen had cast its brutal light upon his features, illuminating the final message for him to see. Stinging his eyes, irritating him.

They would water if any tears remained. But he had long since cried himself away. No tears remained.

There was only anger. At himself, and at the being known as Deus, who had initially forced him and eleven other unfortunate psychopaths into the ultimate battle for power.

The Survival Game, as it had been called, was a bloodbath. He'd lost himself along the way, but that was negligible. He had taken innocent lives, but that was irrelevant. No, the only thing that he truly cared to lose...the one thing that he now knew he could not live without…

Her.

[7/28]

The fated day.

[4:57AM]

The sun had barely begun to rise.

[Sakurami Middle School]

Where it all began. Where it all ended.

His eyes passed over the message, and for the first time in countless years, his chest seized up.

He grit his teeth. Yukiteru reached for the phone and barely managed to stop himself from crushing the device, but he couldn't stop his eyes from moving, flitting, scanning.

Reading and reading and rereading the cursed message.

Yuno died.

Gasai Yuno died by her own hand.

Yuno died.

He wasn't able to save her.

Yuno died.

He couldn't even save himself. From hesitation, from weakness. From his damnation as the eternal God of Space-time.

And as if it were the easiest thing in the world to do, Amano Yukiteru sat upright.

He rose to his feet, despite floated aimlessly in the vacuum of space.

And he looked to Murmur. His loyal servant. His friend.

"Murmur," he spoke at full volume, and for the first time since his imprisonment, without bitterness.

Needless to say, the otherworldly creature was so stunned to hear his voice that she ripped her manga volume right in half. Any other day, she'd have attacked him for making her do that. Murmur whirled around so fast that, had he still been human, Yukiteru wouldn't have followed her.

"Whoa, whoa! Don't say my name out of nowhere like that, especially after keeping your mouth shut for so long! Look what you did!"

And she displayed the remains of her favorite manga with the most accusatory glare that a creature of her height could muster.

"You're going to make me a new copy of this manga, right now! And while you're at it, why don't you spruce up this place with a few new planets or something? I'm getting tired of staring at black and white panels when my head is down, and looking up only to see more black emptiness and white stars! You won and I have to serve you now, but that doesn't mean-"

"We're leaving."

"-that you can just toss me aside and let me rot here in silence! I'm a servant, I need to SERVE! Give me something to do, give me something to make or blow up or something! Make me your interior decorator! Throw in some trees, a lake, maybe-"

Murmur trailed off. Blinking twice, she tilted her head in apparent confusion.

"Eh? Leaving? We are? Finally! It's about time you stopped moping around!"

Without offering a response, Yukiteru turned around and raised his arms slowly.

"So, Boss, where are you taking us? Somewhere nice I hope, maybe a nearby galaxy. Find a pretty jungle world, or one that's nothing but water! Oh! Oh! Or maybe-"

"The Third World."

Murmur blinked again. "Eh, sorry. I think I misheard you."

"We are going to the Third World." Yukiteru responded in a flat tone, raising both arms up and directing them out from his body, palms open and facing the void ahead.

Murmur dug into her ear with her pinky finger and flicked away the excess wax. "One more time, I swear I just heard you say-"

"The Third World, yes."

"Stop interrupting me!" She pouted and tugged his ear. "Why are you spouting crazy stuff now? Did it really take several thousand years to fry your brain? There's no way into the other timelines, they've been closed off ever since Second died!"

"Yuno," Yukiteru mumbled. "Her name is Yuno."

"Was," Murmur retorted, tugging his ear again. "She's dead, Yukiteru. I don't like saying it because I don't want to remind you of sad stuff like that, but it's true."

"Not in the Third World, it isn't."

"Even if there was a way back-"

"Just shut up and-"

"STOP INTERRUPTING-"

"-watch!"

A ripple. Murmur's protest died in her throat. If such a thing were even possible, she could swear the space around them had grown colder than before.

Yukiteru exhaled, closing his eyes. Digging deep. Tapping into the well of power that had become an ever-flowing river, the river that had become a churning lake, the lake that had at long last grown into a writhing ocean.

Ten thousand years of languor had finally borne fruit.

The power to rend space-time.

Yukiteru opened his eyes, eyes wild with desire, and he yelled. With all the might in his breast he roared his defiance.

And, bending at last to a power far greater than it could handle, time shattered. Distorted light spilled forth from the massive gateway, a hole with branching cracks that made all the emptiness less daunting.

Contorted iridescence. Cracks in the mirror.

Smiling for the first time since his initiation into godhood, Yukiteru gave the little girl hanging on his shoulder a brief pat on the head before leaping through.

* * *

A/N: Legend of Akasha REDUX, 2.0, Bigger Better and Uncut, whatever you want to call it. If old readers are looking for an explanation, I nuked the previous upload because I couldn't bear the thought of an unfinished product. But since it looks like I can't avoid leaving unfinished work behind, I'd rather leave you with that than nothing at all. I'll try to update this much faster than before, too, since I think I've got most of the story still in my head and more in there than I did before.

Let's watch Alpha Yukiteru rip the Third World a new one in the ultimate Survival Game. Stick with me to the bitter end, readers. I won't disappoint.


	2. New Contact

Within moments, darkness surrendered to light. Falling right through a cloud the instant they entered the Third World, Yukiteru calmly examined the city bathed in falling snow as the last rays of sunlight faded on the horizon. Night had only just arrived, it seemed.

Though this world was not his own, it felt like home.

"Huh. Looks like it's winter time." A sudden chattering in his ear made Yukiteru turn his head.

With snot comically frozen on her face and her body shaking enough to rip open another portal, Murmur responded with an unnecessarily loud, "You think?!"

Spying at last a good landing point, Yukiteru cast aside gravity's feeble hold and flew over to the rooftop of a nearby skyscraper. His bare feet slid against the ice and snow for a second, frigid gravel scratching against skin as he ground himself to a halt.

"Nice landing," Murmur praised, leaping off of his shoulder and moving over to dig at the piles of snow.

"Yeah. Being a god certainly makes things easier."

Snow hit the back of his head. Yukiteru's eye twitched.

"Apparently it doesn't give you eyes in the back of your head," Murmur teased. She threw another snowball.

The chunk of ice and snow immediately froze in place before it could reach him. Yukiteru turned around, sporting a cheeky grin.

"What's that you were saying?"

Murmur took a step back, sweating nervously. "L-let me begin my apology by saying how handsome you lo-"

Yukiteru noted fondly the distance at which her body flew back upon being pelted in the forehead with her own weapon.

"Are you enjoying your stay, Amano Yukiteru?"

His eyes widened so far Murmur thought the boy would inadvertently pop them out. She was no less stunned, herself. Both of them recognized that voice as it reverberated around and within them, booming inside their minds.

Yukiteru narrowed his eyes as he and his servant traded endless gray and white for a background of blinding fuschia.

"Oh no, we've been caught. And so soon, too." Yukiteru turned around, his smile widening.

"Credit where it's due, Deus Ex Machina."

* * *

"Aaah! What a day!"

The exhausted high school student's first inclination upon entering her room? Attack that bed. Just jump over to it and wrestle those sheets in the pursuit of comfort.

And she did just that, throwing her body onto the mattress and surrendering to that wonderful sensation. With a heavenly sigh she reached over to her teal-colored cell phone and flipped it open, gliding through various screens and messages with the trained dexterity of your average teenager.

Even she didn't fully understand why there was such a strong attraction to technology with her generation. She was just happy to be part of it. The Information Age was a beautiful thing. Studying, killing time, finding answers to questions, checking the weather, staying in touch with friends and family; all of these things were made easier by the strange combination of plastic and metal in her hands.

A phone that was hers...or so she had been told. The incident had been a strange one.

She could hardly remember anything about that night five years ago...the night when her old school, Sakurami Middle School, had been almost completely destroyed in a terrorist attack. She had been there, along with her mother and father, to witness it.

The question was, why? For what purpose had her parents taken her there, if they had even been the ones to do it? Had she been kidnapped by the terrorist responsible for the attack?

She didn't remember a thing. Whatever happened, however, had been enough for her life at home to change. Her mother had finally sought medical assistance and her father was never away from home for too long. At last, things had changed for the better.

She had long since come to terms with what her childhood had been like. It was an unimaginable hell that she preferred not to think about, but when she did think about it, all it took was one look at her family now.

Laughing. Smiling. Eating together. Enjoying holidays together.

They were finally a happy family, something she had been so close to giving up on.

But something still...nagged at her. It teased the back of her mind. A blur, an inarticulate whisper; she would concentrate and try to focus on the thought, but every time it would slip away.

The phone in her very hands was the key to it all, she knew it. The handsome cop with chestnut hair who had found the device claimed it belonged to her. After vehemently denying it (since her parents had never once let her have a phone of her own), the man had flipped the phone open and showed her the System Information tab.

Her full name. Right there, fully capitalized, under the header "Owner."

It was unbelievable to start with, and things only escalated from there. The phone itself was like something out of a dream, defying logic and occasionally forcing her to check reality by pinching her arm.

The battery never died. There were never any service issues. There wasn't even any service to begin with, from what she could tell. Despite this, the phone was still fully capable of calling or texting her friends. It could take pictures, record video...everything an ordinary phone could do.

And then there was the diary...possibly the greatest mystery of all. Unfortunately, she had been unable to access that tab; it appeared to be locked out with a password. Considering the phone belonged to her (a fact that still made no sense at all), she had tried every password that came to mind, anything that she might have used before. Still, the tab remained locked out.

As she stared at the sharp glow of the screen, the tab almost appeared to be mocking her. She tightened her grip on the phone, frustrated.

Then it rang, and she almost fell out of her bed in surprise! After carelessly dropping her magical phone to the floor, cherry-pink hair whipped around as she bent over to grab it. Bringing the screen back into view, she raised an eyebrow at the contact name.

[Yukki 3]

Who the hell was that, and why was there a heart next to their name?! It certainly wasn't a person she knew, which meant it could only be one of the contacts who were previously listed in the phone's contact list. Curiosity surged within her, the desire for answers almost completely overwhelming her. Giving in to her impulsive nature, she selected [ANSWER] and brought the device to her ear.

"Hello?" she whispered tentatively.

"Gasai Yuno?"

* * *

The reigning god of the Third World, Deus Ex Machina, was dying just like his predecessors in the First and Second Worlds. But not yet.

He was still fast.

In a flash, the giant creature reached forward and placed his open hands around Yukiteru, trapping the boy in an orb of pale light. A barrier.

"Why have you come here, Amano Yukiteru?" Deus narrowed his great eyes, eyes that Murmur couldn't help but notice were sparkling with a familiar mischief. She turned back to look at Yukiteru, who hadn't lost his smile.

"We both know you're aware of the answer, Deus. And we both know that this stasis field cannot hold me, so why the theatrics?"

With that, Yukiteru cast both of his arms outward and shattered the barrier. Before Yukiteru could gloat, Deus slammed his clawed hands together and crushed the boy's body.

Or he would have, had Yukiteru not slipped through and somehow happened to be sitting cross-legged on top of the god's interlocked hands.

"Oh, try throwing me into a black hole, next. I love that one."

"Gyahahahahaha!"

Deus's laughter echoed throughout the entire Cathedral, shaking the astral plane to its core and throwing Murmur off her footing, much to her dismay. Yukiteru's own smile widened, and he rose to his feet.

"It pleases me to see you are well, Yukiteru. You have the strength of a god, and if my analysis is to be trusted...the confidence of one, as well!"

The boy shrugged and scratched his head, clearly abashed. "Aww, you're just saying that."

"I only say what I mean, Amano Yukiteru. You know this well. Now, why have you decided to grace this world with your presence? Or, perhaps…"

Deus leaned forward, his interest fully piqued. "Perhaps the real question I should ask is, why have you only chosen to come now?"

Yukiteru stretched his arms and rose from his fellow god's enclosed hands, rising lazily through the air to come eye-to-eye with Deus.

"Believe me, if I could have come sooner, I would have. It took a very long time to grow acclimated to my new powers, and even longer to discover how to move through time. Really, it feels like a miracle. I'm surprised I've gotten this far without messing something up."

Another booming laugh from Deus. "Careful, fledgling deity. As interesting as the thought may be, there can be no wisdom in tempting fate."

"I will tempt it anyway," Yukiteru retorted, "and I will go to see her."

Deus's eyes twinkled again, and wordlessly he summoned the phone from Yukiteru's cloak. It settled in midair between his great clawed fingers, rotating slowly between them.

"What are you doing?" Yukiteru raised an eyebrow.

"If the chance to live peacefully alongside Gasai Yuno is your wish, you will have it. But at a price."

"Price?"

Without warning, lightning burst out from between Deus's hands and enveloped the floating device, bathing it in light. Then, as quickly as they had come the bolts vanished, leaving behind a completely different phone.

"Take it." Deus commanded.

The phone rose up from the god's grasp and found it's home in Yukiteru's own hands. Turning it over and over, Yukiteru admired the new design. Pitch black, with golden filaments scattered along the surface. Flipping the phone open, he got the surprise of his life when the screen came to him in the form of a holographic display, hovering just a short distance above the glass that projected it.

"Fancy."

"This is The Key, its true form shielded from view. You need not worry about the function it performs, only keep it on your person at all times and do not surrender it, even in death."

Yukiteru scoffed and pocketed the phone, crossing his arms. "Death? I'm insulted, Deus."

"Death comes for you after my own, Amano Yukiteru. This is the task that I am entrusting you with. If you wish to see this Third World bathed in light and not the flames of destruction, you will do as I say."

"And what do you say, old friend?"

Slowly, their elaborate surroundings faded from view, leaving Yukiteru and his companion only with the howling wind and Deus's haunting last words.

"Upon death, I will become a monster. And so, Amano Yukiteru, I would have you destroy me. At any cost."


End file.
